News

New Stained Glass Window unveiled in Belleek Parish Church

Over 5,000 visit Belleek Flower Festival

A large crowd gathered in Belleek over the weekend of 22nd to 25th May 2009
for the Flower Festival in Belleek Parish Church, in what was a unique cultural
weekend celebrating the village’s history in flowers, stained glass,
pottery and music. The event raised over £25,000 towards the cost of
restoration work to the church, and commenced with an opening service on
Friday 22nd May at 2.30pm, during which the Bishop of Clogher, the Rt Revd
Dr Michael Jackson gave the address. Before the service commenced, a new
stained glass east window by David Esler was unveiled by the Revd Noel Regan
and his wife Joan, assisted by the Managing Director of Belleek Pottery,
Mr John Maguire and his wife Catherine, along with Cllr Danny Caldwell Keenaghan,
a descendant of John Caldwell-Bloomfield, one of the founders of Belleek
Pottery.
After the service the Bishop officially opened the flower festival, however
before the opening of the flower festival, Mr John Maguire, Managing Director
of Belleek Pottery launched a new Belleek Pottery basket which had been commissioned
to mark the bi-centenary of the church building in Belleek. “The basket
is designed on the William Henshall basket, the man who brought the art of
basket making to Belleek and who is buried in the Churchyard at Belleek Parish
Church. The Potter’s Wheel window is depicted on the base of the basket” said
Revd Regan. This limited edition beautiful work of art by Belleek Pottery
is available to purchase until the end of July 2009.
The weekend of activities came to a close with a service of choral evensong
on the evening of Monday 25th, at which the singing was led by the robbed
choir of the Priory Church, Killadeas.
Speaking after the weekend event, Revd Regan reported that the weekend was
a huge success. “The whole weekend was just phenomenal. We had a great
reaction to the potter’s window and the crowds came from all corners
of Ireland, including Wexford, Tipperary, Dublin and all across the west,
it was just unbelievable. The flower displays were just spectacular, some
of the most exotic ones were imported from as far as South Africa, and they
were all very beautiful.”
The flower displays in the church were the work of Collette Maguire and Austin
Stronge, and in the neighbouring Wark Hall, a number of community flower
arrangements were also on display. These arrangements were designed and created
by local schools and community groups from the Belleek locality. They were
made during workshops and reflected the individual groups concerned.